Etude on Solar – In various keys

Ongoing personal development has been part of my process for many years and now, it is easier than ever to get all the information you need to make swift progress in your chosen field. The only requirement is that you are able to prescribe yourself the right ‘medicine’ to facilitate that progress. I have chosen to return to studying with a tutor who I trust, to direct some of my studies and the results are starting to show…but in addition I am continuing to self-prescribe and create my own studies as a means to further create forward motion.

I have recently been working on chord tones and chromatic approaches in my lessons with Joe Hubbard and, as part of this process, I am required to write an etude to chord progressions. The last lesson I began the application of what I’d learnt to a jazz standard. In this case, Solar was the choice and below is a video of the etude. I’ve composed this and then practiced in all keys at varying speeds from slow to fast with the aim of integrating the various approach note phrasing combinations into my musical language.

In this video, I’m using my Shuker jazz bass direct into Logic X via a tube preamp. The drum loop is from the Solar play-along track on iRealb.

As this will be an ongoing process, I will share my etudes here and will upload the musical notation for anyone who would like it.